Air rule change has a bad odor

October 24, 2006

This is a cautionary tale. Who should be careful? The Bush administration, as it goes about easing the rules that govern emissions from ethanol plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reportedly is planning to change the way that ethanol plants are treated under the Clean Air Act. The change is meant to clear the path for the ethanol boom. More than 40 new ethanol plants are on the drawing board. As anyone who has lived downwind from the New Energy ethanol plant for more than a few years could verify, the odor created by ethanol production can become very burdensome. For 20 years, people in and around South Bend complained about the smell. It made some physically ill. The smell also gave South Bend a reputation for being a stinky city. That's never a good thing. But no matter how much residents objected, New Energy maintained that there was nothing more it could do. The pervasive ethanol odor was regarded as an aesthetic issue, not a health issue. Until 2002, that is. That was the year the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the EPA, under the Bush administration, advised New Energy that the pungent fumes from the plant contained toxins that would have to be eliminated. And there was a way to do it. The EPA already had settled a lawsuit with a dozen Minnesota ethanol plants. The agency found they were emitting carbon monoxide, methanol and cancer-causing chemicals at levels above what had been reported. The settlement required them to install $2 million incinerators that would destroy 95 percent of the toxic volatile organic compounds. An incinerator was installed at the New Energy plant, too. The stench in and around South Bend always seemed worse in the winter. The winter of 2004-2005 was the first in recent memory that was nearly free of the odor. It isn't entirely gone, but the incinerator, as promised, has eliminated most of the smell along with the toxic emissions. For many, it has been a great relief. The planned emission policy change wouldn't affect New Energy. But it would let companies new to the corn-to-fuel industry join the ethanol boom by building bigger plants that do not comply with the rules enforced four years ago. We understand the enthusiasm for joining and promoting the renewable energy rush. But we also understand what it means to live in a city with a smell that lies over it like a blanket. The toxicity of the fumes from the old plants was the EPA's primary concern, as well it should have been. But, trust us, the smell is the first thing anyone notices. Experience tells us that the technology that exists to eliminate unsafe, smelly ethanol emissions should continue to be required by the EPA.